May 12, 2009 hi line

Tig r HiLi e

May 12, 2009

Volume 49 Issue 24

1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

McCullough, Wehrman retire CFHS Ben Olson Staff Writer

With the end of the school year in sight so ends the teaching careers of two veteran CFHS teachers.

Art teacher Bob McCullough and special needs teacher Linda Wehrman will enter a new chapter in their lives in their oncoming retirement.

“It’s definitely time,” Wehrman said.

“There are so many things I want to do, and I want to really be able to do them.”

“I’m 65 this year, and I now have Social Security and Medicare,” McCullough said.

Both would be reasons for anyone to retire, but especially when taking into account these educators’ experience.

“I started teaching in 1968 and have taught at Cedar Falls for 19 years,” Wehrman said.

“Overall, I’ve been teaching art here for 18 years,” McCullough said.

For McCullough, his past would originally suggest a different career path than he has actually taken.

“Originally, in college, I was going to be a coach and P.E. teacher. I didn’t take any art in high school because it wasn’t encouraged, much like today because of the increased core requirements in our schools. I did take art in college. I was successful and had aptitude,” McCullough said.

For Wehrman, the satisfaction of her teach-

ing career is truly starting to settle in.

“I have taught special needs students since 1989 and have enjoyed every day. The students have so much to offer the teacher, and I have learned so much from them. I hope that I have given them much in return,” Wehrman said.

Overall, both teachers agree the rewards

and mature through the three years I have them. Once in a while one of my graduates will check in with me and tell me what they are doing with their life. I really like that,” Wehrman said.

Looking back on 37 combined years of educating at Cedar Falls, McCullough and Wehrman have learned a lot themselves and

Bob McCullough

Linda Wehrman

throughout the years outweigh the bittersweet feelings that retirement brings.

“I really like when students come back and have pursued their interest in art. Some become teachers, designers or artists. It’s great to see positive results like that,” McCullough said.

“It is so rewarding to see the students grow

seen benefits on how their teachings influence students in their lives outside of high school.

“Art really brings together all other courses, but students aren’t necessarily conscious of it.

Art is sophisticated. Math, science, English, and other experiences all come together for the students,” McCullough said.

“I’ve seen these students trying so hard.

If anything, I hope that both the students and I have learned to keep on keepin’ on. It may take a little longer, but we can do it,” Wehrman said.

Besides the initial nostalgia of retirement, enjoyment will come through in the form of more leisure time.

“I’m still going to do art. I paint and have a small pottery set up at my house. I also really like to sail and fish. I have a sailboat and plan on using it as often as I can, probably two to three times a month. I also am going to do some repairs on my house,” McCullough said.

“There are a few things a teacher can’t do, like traveling during the school year. There are some places I’d like to see during seasonal changes. After that, I have no definite plans. It will be nice to have options, though,” Wehrman said.

After the last day of class, both teachers will, however, miss many aspects of their job.

“I will definitely miss the interactions with the students each period. I’ll miss seeing the ‘a-ha’ moments,” Wehrman said.

“I will miss students that really enjoy art and are excited about it. Art is enjoyment, but it’s not fun because it really is a lot of work.

You have to work hard to become good,” McCullough said, ” It’s been very rewarding overall for me, so I truly won’t miss it a lot. I’ve had a great teaching career, so why should I miss it when I’ve enjoyed it so much?”

Music department prepares final performances of year Monica Clark Staff Writer

As the school year winds down, CFHS bands, choir and orchestra will be saying goodbye to the year with their final concerts.

The orchestra will be having it’s concert on Thursday, May 14 at 7:30 in the auditorium.

They will be playing “Concerto for Oboe and Strings” by Camarosa featuring four-year All Stater Elise Berry on Oboe, “St. Paul’s Suite for Strings” by Gustav Holst, a piece by Gabriel Faure featuring four-year All Stater Olivia Hahn and “Edmont Overture” composed by Beethoven.

Regarding how the orchestra has improved throughout the year, director Scott Hall said, “I think the balance within the whole orchestra.

By that I mean all sections playing together with sound balance. The students are great

players, and it has been a fun year of great music making.”

Like a lot of CFHS teachers, he will be

This is also the special ‘goodbye’ concert for our seniors. We have a special presentation for them that is really memorable —Kendra Wohlert Choir Director missing the seniors that have contributed so much to the orchestra.

“They have taught me a lot. Commitment,

dedication (and) service. The orchestra will miss the graduating class,” Hall said.

Gerald Ramsey, director of the Wind Symphony Band, will be conducting “Radiant Joy”

by Steven Bryers and “Of Sailors and Whales”

by Francis McBeth. Kyle Engelhardt, director of the Symphonic Band will be, conducting “Undertow” by Mackey, and “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” by John Barnes Chance.

Both of these concerts will be on Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30.

Kendra Wohlert, the choir director, also has an exciting concert lined up.

“Each ensemble will perform an exciting variety of repertoire from Latin motets to a cotemporary Venezuelan dance piece. Each ensemble has its own distinct sound and personality and that really comes through on a concert. This is also the special ‘goodbye’ concert for our seniors. We have a special presentation for them that is really

memorable,” Wohlert said.

Wohlert also enjoys the great improvements they have made this year.

“The students’ voices have certainly matured, and their musicianship skills have improved a lot. We work on sight reading all year long, and it’s fun to see how far we’ve come by the end of the year,” Wohlert said.

Although the seniors will be leaving, she looks forward to next year and the new students that will be coming in.

“I always look forward to meeting my new sophomore students in the fall and watch my returning students grow into their new ‘status’ as junior and senior members of the choir. I’m also looking forward to adding a Junior High and Senior High All-City Festival Concert to next year’s schedule,” she said.

The choir will be having their concert on Monday, May 18 at 7:30.

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May 12, 2009

ur i ew In the Big Picture, Stargazing offers perspective Giving blood a life-saving act g

Every two seconds, someone is in need of blood.

Although it is a well-known statistic, it is still incredibly significant.

It may easy to not fully appreciate the magnitude of a need such as this.

Realizing that every two seconds is a short amount of time is not difficult, but realizing just how quickly two seconds pass and how often this means someone is in need of blood is more so. Just beginning reading this Our View, several people have been in need of this help.

Fortunately, these several people have also benefited from those who’ve taken the greater amount of time to donate.

Blood donations such as those that will occur at the CFHS blood drive this Friday make this possible.

We would like to thank school nurse Susan Gettman and all of the other people who help organize the blood drive for making such an important event possible. Also, as equally important if not more, we would like to thank all of those who donated blood. They, along with all of the other people who donate blood will make it possible for people in need of blood to receive it. However, they truly have done something more than ensure that people who need one receive a blood transfusion. They have saved lives.

It may sound cliché, but it is true. Blood is obviously important and people, who need blood transfusions, whether because of an accident, cancer or other diseases or premature birth, often would not live without them. For this reason, people who donate blood are truly worthy of our thanks, recognition and admiration.

The benefits of donating blood are obvious, so we almost need not endorse it. However, we would like to make you aware of another statistic: the fact that only five percent of able donors actually donate blood.

We hope that through increased awareness of the benefits of donating blood and through events such as the recent blood drive at Cedar Falls High School, this statistic will be diminished.

Contact the Tiger Hi-Line

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes of Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Wednesdays to read in their DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to the Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publication the following Wednesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial Staff

Editors-in-Chief: Honor Heindl, Kellie Petersen and Ellen Wrede Business Managers: Jill Dally and Alex Entz News Editors: Arlene Freudenberg and Sara Strever Opinion Editors: Maggie Devine and Vincent Stigliani Sports Editors: Jackie Jordan, Nick Penticoff and Paul Strike Feature Editor: Honor Heindl On-Line Editors: Torie Jochims and Ellen Wrede Entertainment Editors: Maggie Devine and Torie Jochims Photo Editor: Honor Heindl Cartoonist: Katie Dexter Graphic Artist: Tasha Woods

The ground is solid beneath your salt on my tongue and the sound of body. It presses into you letting you the waves crashing on the beach. know that you are there existing. The Whenever I look at the sky, I get whole sky stretches that same feeling. It feels in every direction and like home. stars seem to blaze in All of us, and me brightness. included, feel the presLooking at the sures of everyday life. stars in the openness We are constantly on of the country is like the go. nothing else.

We do the laundry, There’s a certain clean our rooms, go peacefulness and to school, go to sports serenity that fills me practices, go to work, whenever I spread out come home late at night, and gaze up at the and do homework. The Monica Clark stars. next day?

Staff Writer The first time Repeat. All of us I saw the ocean, I get in the same routine couldn’t tear myself away. I couldn’t of trying to get everything done. get enough of the smell, the taste of We try to find the quickest outlet

to everything. We need the fastest phones, fastest computers, fastest cars; fastest everything. We never ask for the slowest.

But maybe we should be asking for the slow. Maybe we should step back and look at the big picture and get away from all the distractions and worries for at least a little.

Drive your car to the country; take your time and open your window.

Find a quiet spot to just enjoy the obscure beauty. Realizing that you are a part of a huge universe can help put things into perspective.

Take some of that peace back with you; hold it close to your heart and know that nature is all around you all the time. You just have to look.

Laughter provides many benefits When the image of yoga comes laughing interspersed with deep up, most commonly the image of breathing,” Stigliani said. people contorting their bodies into Stigliani went on to describe her fantastic shapes through insane own training in laughter yoga. flexibility comes “I was trained by a into people’s minds. woman named Laura However, a far more Gentry. She lives in unique form of yoga Lansing, Iowa, and was has recently come trained by Dr. Kataria, into practice called and she’s trained many laughter yoga. people in the Midwest,” Marie Stigliani, a Stigliani said. local trainer and pracStigliani went on to titioner in laughter describe the physical yoga, described its aspects of laughing. origins.

“When you laugh, “In the midyou do deep abdomiBen Sadkowski ‘90s there was a nal breathing just as in Staff Writer doctor in India yoga. Your body can’t named Dr. Kataria, and he had read tell the difference between fake and all the recent literature about therareal laughter, so you can fake it until peutic benefits of laughter. In India, you make it,” she said. the people who are most interested in “There’s a Cedar Valley Laughter their health would go to the parks in Club that meets once a week for the morning. He would gather a few half an hour. There’s no charge. It’s people and they would tell jokes for open to anyone. There’s no traina half hour. ing required, no special equipment.

After two weeks they ran out of We come together and we laugh for jokes, so he went back and thought half an hour,” she said. According about laughing but without jokes to Marie, the laughter club here in and he made up techniques about the Cedar Valley currently meets laughing without jokes. His wife was in a room at the Cedar Falls Public a yoga instructor and so he created Library.

But what are the benefits of laughing, be it fake or real? Despite whatever doubts may exist, there is no problem in finding a plethora of benefits brought about by laughter.

A study at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, Calif., showed that laughter increases the number of white blood cells in humans, thus protecting us from disease. At the same time, laughter reduces stress by lowering levels of a stress hormone in our body, cortisol.

Perhaps the most interesting use of laughter therapy became most predominantly known in the movie Patch Adams, starring famous actor Robin Williams. In it, Adams, a doctor, uses humor to treat sick patients. Although this occurred in a movie, the real-life medical benefits of laughter are not to be ignored.

Studies conducted at Arizona State University have shown that through laughter, patients are better able to manage and conquer pain.

While I myself can’t help but feel a bit awkward when trying to fake-laugh after a long day at school, when Marie leans over the dinner table and starts to laugh at me, I can’t help but join in.

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Incorrect ballot marks should not count

one party talks for long periods of In case you haven’t been followtime (hours at a time) or otherwise ing politics very closely lately— blocks political action or voting on which has indeed proved difficult a bill. If one party gains 60 seats, after a marathon of a 2008 electhey are effectively tion—you are entitled able to circumvent to an update on the bipartisanship and Minnesota race for its the political “integlast senator spot. The rity” that our highest race pitted the incumoffice-holders supposbent Norm Coleman edly build themselves against Al Franken, the around. Being able novelist and comedian to run amuck as no from Saturday Night party should ever be Live. allowed to (including The race takes on both Republicans and a special significance Democrats) has because of the big only harmful efto-do surroundAlex Entz fects for a country; ing Democrats Business Magager a two-party system sercuring a 60th is built around seat, which would both parties being viable and both happen if they were to take this being able to work together to form a Minnesota race. Having a 60-40 seat majority in the Senate means that the country. Giving one party the ability to block out the other is dangerous 60-seat party will be able to avoid and debilitating. a filibuster, a political move where

The Minnesota race was particularly bloody, even compared to the Obama-McCain and Bush-Kerry slugfests of the past. Both sides ripped into each other with increasing ferocity as Nov. 4 came up, and it became clear that each vote would count in a way that it hadn’t since the 2000 general presidential election.

The election was very close, indeed. At the end of the night on Nov. 4, the election was still far too close to call, and after the original count, Coleman stood ahead of Franken by 477 votes—of over 2,400,000 votes cast. The Franken camp pushed, in a dramatic affair, for a hand recount.

The recount was carried out.

Coleman won by 192 votes.

Ever the dramatist, the SNL sketch writer Franken drug the race out father by asking the liberal Minnesota government to review all challenged and rejected ballots. They caved.

This is where my problem and my opinion comes in. Voting is a very simple thing. All a voter has to do—much to the disdain of those calling for voters to show some

filling in circles clearly, they crossed out names, filled in multiple circles and wrote notes along the margins of the ballot. These votes were counted by a three-member board that looked for “voter intent” and gave the votes to one side or the other. After these pseudo-votes had been counted, Franken took the advantage by 251 votes. Then came the rejected absentee ballots, bringing the level to 225 votes, again in favor of Franken.

The race has since taken to the courts and will likely be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, though Franken

“The idea that voters who could not figure out how to fill in a bubble on a ballot should swing an election is ridiculous.” semblance of intelligence by passing a basic political test (witness their concerns: http://www.breitbart. tv/?p=222883)—is fill in the circles completely to vote for a person.

Nonetheless, hundreds of voters failed this simple task. Instead of

seems to be the likely winner, six months after the election. Nevertheless, the idea that voters who could not figure out how to fill in a bubble on a ballot should swing an election is ridiculous. Come on, Minnesotagive the election to Coleman.

GDP fails to assess happiness

As the saying goes, money does rankings, it is clear that the two do not buy happiness. If it did, the not go hand in hand.

United States would undoubtedly be In the United States, GDP is used the happiest country in the world. as a measure of success. One probHowever, a recent Merlem with this is that cer survey and research even harmful events project showed that the increase GDP. For United States is far beexample, an oil spill hind other areas in terms in Alaska increases of happiness.

GDP because cleanThe study, which ing it up generates ranked cities by their jobs and activity. Natquality of living, found ural disasters, crime that Vienna, Austria, and sickness clearly had the best quality of detract from a socilife. The United States’ ety’s well-being, but highest ranked city in terms of GDP, was Honolulu, which they are potenVincent Stigliani was 28th on the list. tially good. Also, Opnion Editor Switzerland and GDP doesn’t take into account many things that do in Germany, on the other hand, each fact increase the quality of life. If a had three cities in the top 10. mother stays home with her children, In a 2006 survey, Denmark was the GDP is not increased, but if this ranked the happiest country, and the same mother pays for child care, United States was 23rd. When comGDP is increased. paring GDP per capita to happiness

Some economists have developed another way to truly assess a country’s success in terms of wellbeing. This new method is called the General Progress Indicator, or GPI. In this measure of the economy, positive and negative components of economic activity are separated and non-marketed services and activities, such as the mother staying home with her children, are accounted for.

Since 1950, the GDP has increased steadily. However, the GPI peaked in 1975, and has plummeted since. Interestingly, the trends in GPI have mirrored survey-based research.

As a country, we are obsessed with money. This has obsession has caused more important aspects of life, most importantly happiness, to take the backburner. It is becoming increasingly clear that our current practices, while they may generate wealth, are not improving our quality of life at all.

Katie Dexter Cartoon

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Gage Wente (’11) project: learned how to play guitar

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News Editor

A Little History...

ALPHA has been a part of Cedar Falls High School since 1990.

ALPHA was developed in response to the state mandating that all school districts in Iowa must develop a plan to implement gifted programs to all students. Steve McCrea was first CFHS ALPHA teacher and coordinator.

“In 1987-88 Mrs. Hays and I visited eight high school programs for the gifted that were active in school districts of comparable size to Cedar Falls. The idea was to see what models and practices were being used and with what success. From this experience and other research we developed the Cedar Falls High School ALPHA Program based on the Autonomous Learner Model co-created by Dr. George Betts (University of Northern Colorado) and Jolene Kercher. The CFHS ALPHA Program started in the fall of 1990,” McCrea said.

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ALPHA extends options for learning Sara Strever

Amanda Wolf (’09) project: created the Stress Management Club

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ALPHA stands for Autonomous Learners for the Highly Able. It is a program offered to a selective group of students that allows students to grow, learn and expand their horizons.

According to the gifted and talented program description ALPHA’s technical mission is: “Developing lifelong independent learners; ready, willing and able to learn on their own.”

However, the idea of ALPHA aims beyond this. ALPHA coordinator for the District Gifted Program Jewel Hays states her definition of ALPHA’s purpose.

“We want our students to be challenged and to learn how to be self directed learners. We are more about process than content. There is no question that this is an important aspect for the student—­being with kids of similar ability opens up many new friendships. This is also emotionally supportive because for many it is the one place where they don’t feel out of sync and are accepted,” Hays said.

CFHS ALPHA teacher Tim Kangas states his own personal view of ALPHA’s purpose and believes it benefits students mentally and socially.

“When you have a student that has a need for assistance in reading or math, no one questions the authority to provide opportunities to help them, but when you get a student that is faster and more in depth because they have talent, there is generally a feeling that they need to step back and fit in. ALPHA’s purpose is to give those students a chance to be outside of the box,” Kangas said.

ALPHA applies to a selective group of students. It starts in elementary and is offered throughout high school. Hays works with students at the junior high working in each building for two days a week and rotating a pull out program throughout the seven periods of the days.

As early as elementary, students are placed in a “talent pool” and then nominated for being involved in ALPHA. Students can be placed in the talent pool in several different ways such as teacher nomination, parent nomination, guidance department, test screening, peer nomination or self-nomination. Once students are nominated, the appropriate data is collected, and when openings occur, Hays interviews and selects students from the talent pool. However, students are not limited if they are only nominated to be in the talent pool in elementary and junior high.

“I go down to the ninth graders in the talent pool. We can take more kids (at the high school) because I am full time, so students who were limited to be in ALPHA in junior high and ele-

mentary can now join. We push to have about six to seven percent of students. There are about 80 kids in the program right now, but it has pushed to nine percent before,” Kangas said.

ALPHA teachers also serve a very important purpose to help students in various ways.

“Our role is to teach the curriculum, identify students, evaluate their performance, communicate and provide in-service for other teachers, provide the system for acceleration for all academically advanced students,” Hays said.

On the high school level, ALPHA also helps students earn elective credit.

Sophomores involved in ALPHA typically start off taking Early Bird ALPHA. It is a 0.5 elective credit per semester. Students taking Early Bird will primarily focus on “some subjects that aren’t covered in other school classes. For example, we learn about learning styles, films and we also do some self-evaluation. Through ALPHA, we learn how we think as individuals and how we learn compared to our peers,” sophomore Kevin Dou said.

However, Early Bird is just one of four ALPHA classes offered. In-depth is offered to students who want to explore a topic and earn 0.5 credit per semester. At the end of the semester, students enrolled in this class have to make a presentation to an appropriate audience or present their project.

“I’m researching chess. In the ALPHA room, there is a Mac with a wickedly smart chess program. In the eight years it has sat there, everyone who has played against it has gotten clobbered.

My main focus is beating the computer before the semester is over, but I’m also learning how to read chess notation and learning openings, tactics, endgames, etc. So far, I think I have spent around 15 to 18 hours both learning chess and getting beat up by the computer,” senior Sam Condon said.

Autonomous is the most in-depth course offered to ALPHA students. Students enrolled will construct an independent and extensive study on a particular topic. Students enrolled in this class earn 1.0 credit per semester. Senior Ben Ulfers is involved in this class.

“My semester project is learning to read music. I’ll learn to read the notes and the key signatures. I’m pretty much learning by using flashcards and studying music,” Ulfers said.

Finally, students enrolled in ALPHA who do not wish to create an extra project or earn any elective credit participate in ALPHA activity.

Students enrolled in this class are allowed to participate in any ALPHA activity.

“ALPHA activity is like a study hall where you’re free to talk wtih your friends, listen to

music, and work on homework. I enjoy ALPHA activity because I can be in ALPHA but not have to turn in a project” Senior Katie Dennler said.

Not only do ALPHA students have the perk of having the ability to earn elective credit for taking an ALPHA course, they also are welcomed to use the ALPHA room. The ALPHA room is located near the library on the second floor of the building.

“The ALPHA room is a home base where they can gather and vent frustrations and be around similar students that have similar issues and humor. It is the central component that provides to the needs of ALPHA students,” Kangas said.

Junior Rachel Connelly enjoys using the ALPHA room.

“The ALPHA room at the high school’s great.

It’s just so comforting and safe, and other ALPHA kids help you feel included,” Connelly said.

Students can go to the ALPHA room during their ALPHA class period, lunch or when they just feel like being around other people.

“The ALPHA room gives a chance to be around other students that are talented as they are, and they can work together to build on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We see seniors helping sophomores choose classes.

We see seniors and juniors helping sophomores with classes with challenging courses that they already had taken. It is a safe zone for students,” Kangas said.

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Tyler Schaub (’09) project: World Food Prize Youth Symposium/wrote an in-depth paper on China’s food production

Daniel Veenstra (’09) project: senior recital (singing)

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Sarah Wallingford (’11) project: made an educational video for Spanish

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N eW Rel eases Become a Trekkie

Music:

•Green Day 21st Century Breakdown •The Datsons Headstunts •Steve Earle Townes •Better Than Ezra Paper Empire •George McConnell Singles Only •Meat Puppets Sewn Together

Movies:

•Angels and Demons •The Brothers Bloom •Management

F eature Pod cast

This week’s feature podcast as well as eight others that are updated every other week can be found on The Tiger Hi-Line Online (http://www. cedar-falls.k12.ia.us/buildings/cfhs/ journalism/index.html) by following the podcast links. Internet Explorer does not work for viewing this site.

Use Safari, Firefox or Opera for best results. The website is also linked off the high school’s website.

What’s hot in the literary world among staff and students at CF. This show will tackle different themes and favorites with each episode.

May 7/Episode Fifteen Senior Lee Przybylski drops by with details on Future Problem Solvers.

May 12, 2009

Left: Quinto and Pine demonstrate Spock and Kirk’s relationship aboard the Enterprise.

Torie Jochims Entertainment Editor

Star Trek opened this weekend, with highly anticipated viewers leaving theaters thoroughly pleased.

With a younger, more Hollywood cast and a host of new FX possibilities, audiences enter the theater with a hope for entertainment and leave with a sense of having, for two hours, entered an entirely separate universe. Director J. J. Abrams did a brilliant job of bringing it back to life, starting with a chaotic scene telling the story of right before James Tiberius Kirk is born.

This enables Abrams to have a sweet, often overlooked, moment of describing both Kirk and Spock’s childhood as we see Kirk zooming down an open Iowa highway (when Iowa appeared on the screen, several fists of victory pumped in the air of the theater, immediately identifying audience members of this particular venue with young Kirk) and contrast that scene starkly with a young Spock spouting equations and getting picked on for his half-human bloodline.

Finally, after a quick flash to the future and a good bar fight involving

Photo from flickr.com

Kirk and several Starfleet members, along with a personal invitation from Captain Pike himself, James Kirk (Chris Pine) finds himself in San Francisco, Starfleet Academy’s home (another canon detail maintained in the film).

This is where things really start to get interesting, because the famous dynamic duo of Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto) finally meet as young adults and immediately dislike one another. The friction between the two builds up an ever classic divide of mind (Spock) and body (Kirk) as well as adds a dynamic to the plot and character relationships that keep audiences thrilled to see if the two will ever become the friends we all expect from them. (You can’t blame the two polar opposite personalities for clashing at first, though, in a brilliant show of sparks when Kirk defies the laws of Spock’s impossible test at the Academy).

And then there are the Romulans — the big bad guys of the film, who may have once looked something like Vulcans but now resemble tattooed intergalactic biker boys led by a very villainous Nero (Eric Bana) from the future who has a terrible vendetta against Spock for the supposed destruction of his planet.

The Romulans help Kirk and Spock realize that to work, they need one another.

Abrams’ most difficult job in the making of this film may have perhaps been in casting these two leads, but he made a wise choice in Quinto and Pine. Quinto reproduces Spock with an emphasis on the struggle between his Vulcan and human sides with lapses in judgment and emotions that wash across his features, and Pine produces a potent Kirk full of self-assured leadership and an “I don’t believe in no-win situations” attitude that leaves Shat-

ner’s less shining moments behind.

Both Qunto and Pine don’t follow the book to the letter when recreating their roles, rather gathering their essence and adding their own touch, making the character dynamics that much more exciting to watch.

The whole cast, including supporting characters like Zoë Saldana as Uhura —a hot number who blows off Kirk’s flirting and instead falls for Spock, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu and Simon Pegg as the famous “Scotty” brought the deck of the Enterprise to brilliant life through a team mentality that allows audiences to relish every minute of the franchise reinvention and feel a part of the team as they cheer them on from their theater seats.

Though the film boasted in one TV spot that, “This is not your father’s Star Trek,” it stayed so true to canon while equally modernizing it that new and old fans alike will delight in the whole experience, and if it’s any testament to the film’s immediate popularity, Quinto, Pine and Leonard Nimroy (the old franchise’s Spock as well as a Spock in this film) have already appeared on Saturday Night Live, just one day after the film’s opening in theaters.

Movie ratings not always equal Staff Writer

with host Ellen Wrede

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Star Trek delights new, old fans alike

Monica Reida

The Book Jacket

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A little more than a week ago, my mother and I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a PG-13 film.

What I thought of the film is another article, but I sat there, watching frequent fight scenes—it is an action film after all—and more shots of the back of Hugh Jackman’s naked body than I would’ve cared to have seen.

Later, I reflected on the rating.

It was rated PG-13 and some of the trailers before the film were for family films. I thought that maybe the PG-13 rating was to enable families to see the movie. Wolverine, Jackman’s character, is a superhero with metal claws. He kicks the butt of his evil brother, Victor Creed a.k.a.

Sabretooth—who isn’t his brother in the comics and does very R-rated things in the comics.

A few weeks ago, I was watching Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed film Milk, which was rated R for “language, some sexual content and brief violence,” according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Milk did not have that much cursing, the sex scenes—which were between two men—were brief and there wasn’t that much seen. Overall, what is seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is much worse than the content in Milk.

The PG-13 rating was introduced in 1984 after the outrage over the content in films such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This was to fix the problem

of certain films, like the ones previously mentioned, having content that seemed too strong for the PG rating, but not strong enough for the R rating.

However, if one looks at the films released today the situation seems to have changed. Now, films that should be getting R-ratings are rated PG-13. Unless a horror film is of the Saw or Hostel series, sadistic, gratuitously violent films are rated PG-13.

PG-13 ratings seem to be handed out left and right and are given to anything not an excessively violent film or a kids film or a highbrow, intellectual film.

And then there are some films that have violence, but are no worse than PG-13 horror films. For example, the Tim Burton film Sweeney

Todd featured heavy amounts of obviously fake blood used in sometimes comedic throat slashing. (The film’s plot involves a vengeful barber.) It was slapped with an R rating, but I see it as no worse than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In fact one of the nation’s top film critics, A.O. Scott, suggested taking children to it, even discussing his son’s enjoyment of the film.

It seems as though the MPAA has led us astray with their ratings.

They are nonsensical and it seems as though we will have to rely on our own intuition, the delightful wincing at ads on TV, to help us judge films.

After all, most of the students at the high school can get in to see R rated films without their parents.

What does it matter to them?

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7

Athlete Week

Golfers shooting for post-season

of the

Aubrey Caruso Staff Writer

Wesley Boyer Men’s Soccer Senior

Tyler Schaub Photo

Tiebreaker Triumph

After breaking a 3-3 tie and two overtimes, the women’s soccer team celebrated its triumph in a shootout with Iowa City High, 4-3 on Thursday, May 7 at home. Courtney Dreyer, Lindsey Morris, Emily Hester, Haley Patterson and Melanie Adrian made four of five shots in the second overtime, and Rachel Zhorne made two stops as goalie to propel the Tigers to victory.

Women’s track takes second at Divisionals Sarah Byerly Staff Writer

The women’s track team placed 2nd by 4 points to winners Cedar Rapids Washington.

This was quite an accomplishment since Washington beat Cedar Falls by 32 points the last time they competed against each other.

“Our goal was obviously to win the divisional conference, but we are very happy to have gotten as close as we did,” coach Don Williams said.

The meet was delayed an hour and 50 minutes because of the rain, but the girls still had the initiative to win the meet.

“Our girls were undaunted

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by the delay. They had a fire in their eyes that I hadn’t seen before. In this sport as in many, the outcome is often dictated by desire, and we had it,” Williams said.

One of the most exciting races for Cedar Falls was the 1,500. Hannah Savage won it at the line with a personal best time of 5:02. Cara Strike also scored well with her season’s best time.

In the JV race Liz Bauer ran all by herself with a season best of more than five seconds and a big win.

The 4 x 800 won easily for both JV and varsity with Alana Alberts and Rebecca Oberreider setting their best times of the year. Arlene Freudenberg also showed leadership in the JV race.

Alberts also her second season’s

best time as the anchor in the distance medley. Liz Bauer set her best time this year in the 800 as an anchor for the JV distance medley.

Alberts finished off her night with another season’s best in the 400-leg of the JV sprint medley.

“We performed better than I expected and did an outstanding job, but we still can get better for Districts and State,” Coach Williams said.

“We have to carry this momentum forward to next Friday night’s district meet. Amazing things can happen when everyone on the team starts thinking about what they need to do for the team and not what is best for the individual. I am excited to see what lies ahead for this group,” Williams said.

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Women’s golfers played in their third metro meet last Wednesday, May 6, coming in second and shooting a 186. The girls who played in this meet were senior Mackenzee Quarnstrom, juniors Alexis Rokes and Alex Judisch, sophomores Sonja Przybylski and Taylor Grapp and freshman Taylor Roberts.

“Overall I think our team needs to keep practicing hard like we have been, I especially need to work on my putting,” Rokes said.

The girls have seen improvement in their team and plan to keep that going till the end of the season.

“I’m looking forward to the regional meet because it is at our home course. Our competition around the state looks like there will be a few tough teams, but we can do it,” Przybylski said.

Even with the thought of the tough teams ahead, the girls are sure to work hard until then.

“I’m looking forward to all of us working really hard to try to make it to State. It will be tough because there are so many good teams we haven’t played yet,” Rokes said The last meet was Monday, May 11 at Gates Park, but due to the HiLine deadline, scores were not available. It was the conference divisional.

“If we win, we will be Valley Division Champs. (We currently have a 17 stroke lead). We finished in a tie for fourth in the 14 team conference Supermeet,” Coach Megan Youngkent said.

The girls also have a new annual mother daughter best shot coming up.

“I am so excited, it will be nice to just take a break and have fun without worrying about every shot,” Grapp said.

1. How do you prepare for soccer games? Any type of special warm up?

I drink lots of water so that I don’t get cramps, and I make sure I am stretched out very good.

2.What do you like the most about soccer?

I like how the game is very physical, especially for our team.

3. Who do you look up to and why?

I look up to my parents because they are the ones that first got me involved in soccer.

4.Do you have any memorable moments playing soccer?

When we went to State when I was a sophomore, I scored the fastest goal in the tournaament’s history. I scored in 22 seconds.

Tigers in Action Men’s Track 2nd at MVC Divisional 5/8 Next: Coed Districts 5/15 (4 p.m. @ Waterloo) Women’s Track 2nd at MVC Divisional 5/8 Next: Coed Districts 5/15 (TBA @ Away) Men’s Soccer Beat Iowa City City High 5/7 Next: Waterloo East (5 p.m. @ Home) Women’s Soccer Beat Iowa City City High 5/7 Next: CR Kennedy 5/16 (8 a.m. @ Home) CR Jefferson 5/16 (12 p.m. @ Home) Men’s Tennis Beat Waterloo East 5/7 Next: Iowa City City High (4:30 p.m. @ IC City High) Women’s Tennis Beat Waterloo East 5/7 Next: Regionals 5/16 (9 a.m. @ Home) Women’s Golf Placed 2nd at Metro 5/6 Next: Metro 5/14 (2:30 p.m. @ South Hills)

8

Cap r d tu

“Either beating Cedar Rapids Washington or prom ... both were crazy to be a part of.”

—Aaron Green (’09)

“ O n the Sunday after prom, Sara Jones & I wen t s k y d iv ing at Pa ra d is e Sk yd ives in Vin to n , I owa. It was the big gest rush of my life.

We free fell for a lmos t 60 s econd s. T he s ca riest p a r t w a s looking at the open door of the plane a s yo u r altimeter read 14,000 feet knowing th at i n j u s t seconds we'd be exiting the plane. & it w a s weird ’cause you didn't feel like you were f a l l i n g, more like f loating with a bunch of air s trea m ing past your face. It was definitely a h i g h l i g h t in my entire life, let alone in my high s ch o ol ca reer.” —Ma rk Lu k a s iewicz (’09)

“The band trip was definitely a memorable experience. As weird as it sounds, the whole band kind of bonded, because everyone was interacting with different people. & even though I was skeptical about spending an entire week with my band directors, it turned out to be really fun, & I'm not just talking about some questionable pickled herring that I ate...”

—Leigh Sires (’09)

“My favorite memory this year was when we beat Washington in the semifinals & redeemed ourselves from our first game, putting us in the championship.” —Jerry Stoss (’09)

“Katy Kloos & I can have the best time wherever we are. I think we have laughed until we cried in like 30 different places about pretty much every tiny thing. It’s just fun to be able to forget about the yucky stuff.” —Tori Bishop (’10)

“Okay, so when a bunch of us were at All-State Music Festival in November, it started to snow. We got overly excited & when we were walking back from lunch at ISU, we had a blast having a snowball fight, making snow angels in less than one inch of snow, & taking random pictures at a bus stop. It was tons of fun & a weekend we will never forget!” ­—Vanessa Horstman (’10)

”...You Had To Be There”

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“I loved the last home football game during half-time when the marching band was playing. Mark Lukasiewicz turned around on the center podium during the finale & picked up his tenor saxophone & ripped an amazing solo.

Everyone in the stands immediately jumped to their feet screaming & cheering. The marching band then formed a perfect star on the field. Seeing the enthusiastic faces of the crowd & the triumphant looks in the students marching was absolutely wonderful.

That was just one of those moments where you wanted take a mental picture & savor the feeling forever.”

—Elise Berry (’09)

“One of my favorite memories was taking part in three plays at UNI this year. In the fall, I took part in Three Sisters. During the process, I made so many friends at UNI, & I met my girlfriend, Eden.

Being with her has been a dream come true. We are so much alike & can joke around with each “I remember the state football game of this other every minute of every day & still know that year. No one thought we'd get that far, but we we care for each other. Through Eden, I’ve met definitely proved them wrong. I was so glad to many great people in the department & across get to cheer in the stands with my classmates campus. I'm really excited now to be going to & friends. My voice was completely sore & UNI because I'll have a leg up on incoming freshraspy the next day due to it. & the pounding man concerning professors & the grief they'll get on the bleachers was painful yet totally worth for being new. I've already had to deal with it!” it.” —Kristen Aldrich (’09) ­—Sam Lilja (’09)

“Definitely prom. I've made new friends this year, & going to prom with those people & having it be the last dance of senior year was awesome. There’s nobody that I would have rather spent it with.”

—Ryan Stambaugh (’09)